#mmhhhmm

again, i’m really obsessed with the whole “nature out of balance” theme that could’ve been used better in the game. like, the wolf defending a human? would not happen in real life. but because nature is so out of balance with the wendigo existing, it sided with the stranger to defeat it.

i think something similar could happen with the stag. it should’ve gone off after it had grown up, but instead, it follows matt up the mountain. the wolf that finds them should have attacked the stag on sight, but instead it walks side by side with it. 

and it doesnt change. after a month of trying to round up the monsters that are left, the wolf doesn’t attack it, and the stag doesnt run away. and it makes matt really uneasy, because that must mean there’s still wendigos out there that he hasn’t found. so he keeps looking.

he finds josh.

he has to lock him up. there’s no choice, he has to do it. but there are times when josh comes back to himself, if only a little bit. when the spirit of the wendigo releases it’s hold, the stag and the wolf approach him. sometimes, they even sleep beside him. but when they run away, when the wolf bears its claws and the stag points its antlers matt knows that the wendigo is in control again. somehow, the creatures know when he’s possessed and when he’s not.

seeing this only makes him determined to save josh. if there’s even a remnant of him left, he will try. anything that’s possessed can get exorcised, right? he tells josh this through the bars separating them, and josh laughs. the wolf twitches its ears at the sound.

matt calls everyone. tribal leaders, supernatural hunters, everyone in-between. when a shaman finally offers to come and try to destroy the wendigo spirit, matt hugs the other man, the half-transformed monster. his body is still in his arms.

the shaman comes and enacts the ritual. everything goes wrong. the wendigo spirits are powerful, that’s the risk of the ritual, and the few he captured break out, including josh. matt has to fight them until the ritual is complete, and he burns the monsters in the flurry of snow and blood and roars. but when josh appears, the flame goes out.

the ritual is completed. the spirits of the wendigo are gone forever. the shaman stumbles in the storm, and he can see nothing but white. finally, then, color. the outline of antlers. as he gets closer, he sees brown and grey fur circle around two figures in the snow.

josh is on his knees, cradling the other boy in his lap. there’s blood in the snow. 

blood drips from josh’s lips -- now human and whole -- as he whispers nonsense into the wind, cradling matt’s body close to his chest.